Changes At The Top

The GOP bloodletting continues following the party’s loss of both chambers of Congress, with reports that Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman will step down when his two-year term ends in January.

There will be a leader at the NRCC, too. Despite the fact that U.S. Rep. Tom Reynolds may have successfully weathered a second challenge from Democrat Jack Davis, but this rocky election season cost him clout.

Reynolds can’t continue as chair because House GOP rules limit NRCC chairs to two terms – a fact Reynolds told the Buffalo News he won’t seek to change. He’s not up for any other leadership posts, either.

The House Republicans will hold their leadership elections next Friday. The three candidates to replace Reynolds as NRCC chairman are: Tom Cole of Oklahoma, Phil English of Pennsylvania and Pete Sessions of Texas.

At the state level, rumor has it that Assembly Minority Leader James Tedisco, R-Schenectady, is nervous about keeping his leadership post (which he’s only held for one year) after losing three seats in Tuesday’s elections.

He didn’t do so badly when you consider that the Assembly Democrats, who have considerably more in the way of resources than their minority colleagues, targeted at least seven GOP seats this fall.

The Assembly GOP can’t hold a formal election on their leader until the Assembly Democrats do the same. No date has yet been set for a vote on the speaker’s post, which typically is one of the first things on the agenda when legislators return to Albany in January.

The Assembly majority will hold its annual retreat in Manhattan Nov. 28-30.

Meanwhile, speculation continues to swirl around how long state GOP Chairman Stephen Minarik will stick around. He told WROW this morning that Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, R-Brunswick, “wants me to stay on.”

There’s equal speculation on the other side of the aisle about who Governor-elect Eliot Spitzer will tap to replace outgoing state Democratic Chairman Herman “Denny” Farrell Jr.

A Democratic source says it’s likely the candidate will come from outside NYC, as the Spitzer camp is sensitive to the fact that every statewide office is now held by a downstate Democrat.

The accepted view is that Erie County Democratic Chairman Len Lenihan and Suffolk County Chairman Richard Schaffer are the leading candidates to replace Farrell.

However, there have also been rumors that the Spitzer team will opt for someone whose name has not yet been mentioned.